STADIA CAPITAL PARTNERS

Private access

This site is available to invited athletic departments, investors, and institutional partners. Enter the access code provided in your invitation.

Invitations are issued directly by the firm. To request access, contact baileycovert79@gmail.com.
Capital for college athletics

We help athletic departments get the money to compete in today's college sports.

And we raise that money — from the institutions, alumni, and supporters who want to see their programs win. Stadia sits between the two: structuring, underwriting, and administering season-based funding programs that give departments the resources to build a roster, and give investors a defined, well-protected return.

For athletic departments

The money to compete, on terms you can live with.

Every program now carries a permanent revenue-sharing obligation on top of roster, staff, and facility costs. The traditional answer — ask donors for more — is reaching its limit. Giving that offers nothing back is re-earned from zero every year, grows slower than the roster bill, and cannot be relied on to fund a recurring, seven-figure expense forever. University debt is slow and politically constrained; private equity wants a permanent stake in your department.

Stadia provides a different route: a one-season funding program, secured against a capped share of your commercial revenue, that puts capital in your hands before the roster is built and is fully repaid the following February. Your supporters can participate — and, for the first time, be repaid. You keep your equity, your control, and your options.

See how a program works
For investors

A defined return from the strongest cash flows in sports.

College athletics generates institutional-grade, publicly reported revenue — and until now offered no short-duration way to invest in it. Stadia raises capital for each program from qualified institutions and from a school's own alumni and supporters, and administers it through a dedicated funding entity per department.

Investors receive a guaranteed base return, secured through a trustee-controlled lockbox on pledged revenue, plus a performance component tied to the season. Every program is underwritten from public NCAA financials against a fixed coverage standard, and no program is offered that does not meet it — including programs a department would like to be larger.

Read our underwriting standards
What we do

Four things, done carefully.

Stadia is a program administrator and capital raiser. We do not lend from our own balance sheet, and we do not take ownership positions in athletic departments.

01

Program structuring

We design each department's season funding program: the size, the revenue streams pledged, the guaranteed and performance-linked components of the investor return, and the dedicated funding entity that holds it — non-recourse to the university.

02

Underwriting and coverage analysis

Every program is sized from the department's public NCAA financial report against a fixed coverage standard. We share the analysis with the department before any engagement, and with investors before any commitment.

03

Capital raising and distribution

We raise each program's capital from institutional investors and, through a school-branded offering, from the department's own alumni and supporters — whose participation is gated on annual giving so that the program strengthens, rather than replaces, the donor relationship.

04

Program administration

Lockbox, servicing, reporting, and repayment. Pledged revenue is routed to an independent trustee as it is received during the season, until the guaranteed return is fully covered; performance components are settled after the season; the program closes out each February and, if the department chooses, a new one begins.

How it works

A season-based program, raised during the prior season.

Capital is raised while the current season is underway — when attention and support are highest — and is in the department's hands before the next roster is built.

September – October

Engagement

Working session with the athletic director, CFO, and foundation. Program sized from public filings; funding entity formed; board approval.

November – January

Raise

Institutional commitments and the school-branded offering to supporters in good standing, closed around the end of the season.

February – May

Funding

Capital delivered to the department for the spring roster window and revenue-sharing budget. Trustee lockbox established on the pledged revenue streams.

September – January

Season

The funded season is played. Performance components track results; the department reports through the funding entity.

February

Repayment

Investors repaid in full. The department decides whether to run a program for the following season.

A department's obligation ends with each program. There are no multi-year commitments, board seats, or exit provisions.

Underwriting standards

How we protect the department and the investor.

The same four rules apply to every program we administer, regardless of the size of the school.

Pledge cap

No department pledges more than half of its football net cash flow to a program. The balance of the athletics budget — including non-revenue and women's sports — remains fully funded from the department's own resources.

Coverage floor

The guaranteed investor return must be covered at least twice over by pledged revenue in an ordinary season, before any postseason results. Programs that do not meet the floor are reduced in size or not offered.

Trustee lockbox

Pledged revenue — ticketing, sponsorship, licensing — is paid into an account controlled by an independent trustee as it is received during the season, ahead of the department, until the guaranteed return is fully covered. Investors are paid from revenue that is set aside before the department can spend it.

No equity, no control

Programs are revenue participations, not ownership. Departments do not sell equity, grant investor consent rights, or take on buyback obligations. Stadia takes no ownership position in any department.

Why it works

Every program is sized to what one season repays.

A program is repaid from a single season of pledged revenue, so its size follows directly from the department's own numbers. That is what makes it dependable — and repeatable.

Sized to the department

Every program starts from the department's own football revenue. A capped share of that revenue is committed to the program, and the program is sized so that share comfortably covers the guaranteed return in an ordinary season — before any postseason results. The scale moves with the department: a flagship program supports a larger raise, a mid-sized program a smaller one, on exactly the same standard.

The result is capital in hand for the spring roster window, repaid in full the following February from revenue the department already generates. Before it signs, the department knows precisely how the season repays it.

Why it works year after year

Season funding brings next year's revenue forward. Sized to the coverage standard, it functions like a revolving facility against receivables: the department draws it, repays it from the season, and can run it again — the same way it renews season tickets.

Because each program is set by the coverage math rather than by ambition, repayment is routine, investors return, and the department builds a track record that makes every subsequent program easier to raise. The discipline is what turns a single raise into a permanent source of capital.

Illustrative coverage analysis

How a program is sized.

The analysis below applies our coverage standards to a department's football net cash flow. It is illustrative — actual programs are sized from audited filings and a full underwriting review.

Football revenue less football expenses, from the department's NCAA report. A flagship program may exceed $100M; a strong Group-of-Five program is often $10–20M.
Capped at 50% under our standards; shown to 60% for illustration.
Capital raised. Investor return modeled at 1.05x guaranteed plus 0.15x performance component.
Postseason cash (gate, licensing, sponsor escalators) is a modeling estimate scaled to program size.
Total investor return due
Pledged cash available

Coverage = pledged cash ÷ total return due. Programs are approved only when the guaranteed component is covered 2.0x in an ordinary season; the coverage floor is what sets a program's size. Illustrative; not an offer of securities.
The firm

Built for the department and the investor at once.

Stadia Capital Partners was formed on a simple observation: college athletic departments have some of the most reliable, publicly reported revenue in sports and almost no way to finance a single season of it. The instruments on offer — annual giving, university debt, private equity — are each built for a different problem. Annual giving in particular is being asked to do something it was never designed for: fund a permanent, growing roster budget with money that offers the donor nothing in return. That model is under strain, and it will not last forever.

We work on both sides of that gap. For departments, we are a structuring and administration partner. For investors, we are an originator and underwriter with a fixed standard and a fee-based model — we are never the lender and never the owner.

The firm is independent and privately held.

Leadership

Bailey CovertFounderbaileycovert79@gmail.com
OpenPartner, Structuring & Underwriting
OpenPartner, Capital Markets

Advisers and counsel

Securities counsel, trustee and escrow relationships, and sports-finance advisers are engaged for each program and named in its offering materials.

Contact

Start with a working session.

For athletic departments, we prepare a coverage analysis from your public financial report before we meet, so the first conversation is about your program, not ours. For investors, we share the underwriting file for any program on the calendar.

Athletic departmentsAthletic directors, CFOs, and foundation leadership
InvestorsInstitutions, family offices, and qualified individuals
PartnersTrustees, counsel, and distribution partners
DirectBailey Covert, Founder — baileycovert79@gmail.com

Thank you.

We will be in touch to arrange a working session. (Demo form — connect to your CRM before launch.)